SPRAIN OF THE BACK-SINEWS. 24^ 



are so likely as these effect that purpose. Every stimulating application 

 will infallibly aggravate the mischief. 



The horse beginning to put his foot better to the grouwd, and to bear 

 pressure on the part, and the heat having disappeared, the object to be 

 accomplished is changed ; recurrence of tlie inflammation must be pre- 

 vented, the enlargement must be got rid of, and the parts must be 

 strengthened. The two latter purposes cannot be better effected than by 

 using an elastic bandage ; one of thin flannel will be the best. This will 

 sustain and support the limb, while by few means are the absorbents sooner 

 induced to take up the effused coagulabie matter, of which the swelling is 

 composed, than by moderate pressure. If the bandage be kept wet with 

 vinegar, to each pint of which a quarter of a pint of spirit of wine has been 

 added, the skin will be slightly stimulated and contracted, and the cold pro- 

 duced by the constant evaporation will tend to subdue the remaining and 

 deep-seated inflammation. This bandage should be daily tightened in 

 proportion as these parts are capable of bearing increased pressure, and 

 the treatment should be persisted in for a fortnight: if, at the expiration of 

 that period, there be no swelling, tenderness, or heat, the horse may grad- 

 ually, and very cautiously be put to his usual work. 



Should there, however, remain the slightest lameness or considerable 

 enlargement, the leg must be blistered ; and, indeed, it would seldom be 

 bad practice to blister after a case of severe sprain: for the inflammation 

 lies deep in the sheath of the tendons, and the part once sprained long 

 remains weak, and subject to renewed injury, not only from unusual, but 

 even ordinary exertion. If the blister be resorted to, time should be given 

 for it to produce its gradual and full effect, and the horse should be turned 

 out for one or two months ; and here we must be permitted to repeat, that a 

 blister should never be used while any heat or tenderness remains about 

 the part, otherwise the slightest injury may be, and often is, converted into 

 incurable lameness. 



Very severe sprains, but much oftener sprains badly treated, may require 

 the application of the cautery. If from long-continued inflammation the 

 structure of the part is materially altered, if the swelling is becoming cal- 

 lous, or the skin is thickened and prevents the free motion of the limb, no 

 stimulus short of the heated iron will be sufficient to rouse the absorbents 

 to remove the injurious deposit. The principal use of firing is to rouse 

 the absorbents to such increased action that they shall take up and remove 

 the diseased thickness of the skin, and likewise the unnatural deposit in the 

 cellular substance beneath. The firing should be applied in straight lines, 

 because the skin, contracting by the application of the cautery, and grad- 

 ually regaining its elastic nature, will thus form the best bandage over the 

 weakened part. Here, even more particularly than in the blister, time 

 should be given for the full action of the firing. This removal of diseased 

 matter is a work of slow progress. Many weeks pass away before it is 

 perfectly accomplished ; and, after firing, the horse should have at least 

 a six months', and it would be better if he could be given a twelve months' 

 run at grass. When the animal has been set to work in a few weeks, 

 and the enlargement remains, or lamejiess returns, the fault is to be attrib- 

 uted to the impatience of the owner, and not to the want of power in the 

 operation, or skill in the operator. 



Farriers are apt to blister immediately after firing. A blister may be 

 useful six weeks or two months after firing, if lameness remains ; but can 

 never be wanted immediately after the severe operation of the cautery. If 

 the iron has been skilfully applied,, subsequent blistering inflicts on the 



